May 12, 2017

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was given a 2-year sentence (which he will appeal), and he is now in jail, the NYT reports.

Bivitri Susanti, head of the Jakarta chapter of Indonesia’s Association of Constitutional Law Lecturers, criticizes the application of the law: “It’s not about the speech itself and whether it’s condemning Islam itself. It’s about whether society believes it’s wrong or annoys them.”

Mass rallies were organized calling for his arrest, with some zealots demanding that the governor be put to death. Many analysts said that the protests had been orchestrated by his political rivals and that they were a strong factor in his 16-point defeat in last month’s election....

Among Indonesia’s population of 250 million are more than 190 million Muslims, but there are also smaller, influential minorities including Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

“First, this verdict is really intimidating for minority groups,” said Tim Lindsey, director of the Center for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at the University of Melbourne. “Second, it tells Muslim politicians that they should try to use the religion card in other elections. Religion has never been absent,” he continued, “but this is a real shift. This has been building up for a long time.”

I became aware of this case because an Indonesian artist just got fired off the X-Men for referencing the protests with "easter eggs" in the artwork. He was basically advocating the point of view that the Quran says Christians and Jews should not be allowed as leaders. He put a notation of the verse on a character's t-shirt. This was seen as unhelpful for a book in which a Jewish woman becomes the leader of the X-Men.

It was also probably unhelpful that he drew her in one panel next to a "Jewelry" store so that her head blocked most of the word, but not the "Jew" part.

Next thing you know, this governor will be telling Muslims the Koran does not approve beheading non-believers. Glad this guy was stopped in his reckless appropriation of Koran-reading/interpreting before any more Indonesian Muslims experienced micro-aggressions.

16-point victory is the point. Now its established that this stuff is political dynamite. The next general elections (2019) there (this was just Jakarta governor) will be interesting. Jakarta is the big city, full of secularized people and non-Muslims. If this can work there, it can work anywhere.

Part II will be anti-Chinese laws, because the former Gov is actually Chinese (regardless of his name), besides not being a Muslim.

Meanwhile, back in the good ole USA, Sen. John Cornyn was disinvited from being the commencement speaker at Texas Southern University because.....he's a white, male, Conservative Republican. Can't have that. Cannot have that on school grounds. While across the country, Linda Sarsour, who finds Sharia Law comforting, and Jews...not so much, is the featured speaker at CUNY's graduation for the School of Public Health. (one can only wonder what ISIS has to do with public health).

“First, this verdict is really intimidating for minority groups . . . . Second, it tells Muslim politicians that they should try to use the religion card in other elections. Religion has never been absent,” he continued, “but this is a real shift. This has been building up for a long time.” Yeah, it's been building up since, what, the 600s? So third, it tells us that there is no escape from the real implications of real Islam, wherever Muslims hold power. We should respond in kind. Let's call it the Martel option.

Indonesian politics since independence wasnt very Muslim at all. In Sukarnos day it was instead very secular, leftist, and authoritarian; in Suhartos day the same, except for the socialist. Political Islam, outside of Aceh, mainly, is a development of the last 20 years.

Very similar to Turkey..no? The two shining examples of secular Islam are both turning fundamentalist. I prefer fundamentalist, because the problem isn't Islamic government per se, the problem is the religion of Islam.

More evidence, in case you needed it, that even "mainstream"/"democratic" Muslim countries are are pretty GD strange. For instance, brutal misogyny is routine and unpunished in Indonesia (http://asiapacificreport.nz/2016/07/27/women-still-not-safe-from-sexual-abuse-in-indonesias-rape-culture/) as it is in many parts of the Middle East.

Me? I don't want much to do with them. But then I guess I am an Islamophobe.

But but but the Handmaid's Tale is a shockingly timely reminder of the kind of Christian theocratic patriarchy that's juuuuust about to descend on the American people! We all know white Western Christians are the people who are most likely to impose religious-based oppressive governments. The Media tells us so, daily.